In the field of the packaging of consumer products of various kinds there is an increasing use of substantially box-like containers made of a lightweight material such as cardboard or synthetic material, specifically suitable to protect the product and to give it specific aesthetic and consumer presentation qualities.
Packaging occurs, preferably in an automated manner, on machines that insert the product in a respective container that is provided appropriately. The containers are usually stored, for example in a stack, so that their side walls are arranged in a substantially flattened tubular configuration, so as to achieve minimum space occupation.
In order to perform automated insertion of the products in the respective containers taken in succession from the magazine, each container must be opened out, i.e. its side walls must be appropriately spaced apart and lifted. Opening is generally performed by inserting an appropriately provided element between the walls of the container so as to lift them at a preset angle; the open containers must then be conveyed to a product insertion station.
Currently, the containers, after being opened, are gripped by an appropriately provided transfer device equipped with supporting elements that are arranged so as to form a sort of comb, and are stored in respective receptacles provided on a conveyance line, for example of the chain type, that is suitable to convey the open containers to the next treatment station.
The transfer device described above is not free from drawbacks.
It has in fact considerable limitations, the foremost being linked to the quality level of the formed containers: a considerable percentage of the open containers is in fact often affected by surface damage, mainly due to the fact that the containers, in order to be inserted in the respective receptacles, are subjected to a certain forcing: this can also cause incorrect positioning of the containers in the receptacles, with consequent jamming and halting of the production line.
Secondly, the device for transferring the open containers is characterized by production rates that can be increased in order to meet the ever increasing demand for higher efficiency of the machine.